Bank of Nova Scotia Boosts Stock Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 19.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 382,377 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,927 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia owned approximately 0.07% of Progressive worth $102,038,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,516,288 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $14,548,217,000 after purchasing an additional 493,332 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,513,188 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,128,055,000 after buying an additional 301,371 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 61.4% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after buying an additional 3,174,632 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Progressive by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,338,556,000 after buying an additional 1,091,828 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 2nd quarter worth $2,156,939,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Progressive from $276.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $246.00 to $247.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Zacks Research cut shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Progressive from $312.00 to $301.38 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $301.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $266.52.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other Progressive news, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 6,420 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.22, for a total transaction of $1,555,052.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 15,192 shares in the company, valued at $3,679,806.24. This represents a 29.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.29, for a total transaction of $307,050.05. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,323,176.42. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 17,673 shares of company stock worth $4,163,005 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $222.85 on Monday. The Progressive Corporation has a 1 year low of $199.90 and a 1 year high of $292.99. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $225.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $244.24. The company has a market cap of $130.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.22, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.04 by ($0.59). The business had revenue of $21.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.64 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.88% and a net margin of 12.57%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.58 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Company Profile

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.